Labor Relations in the Airline Industry

Airline industry workers ensure that the mechanical equipment of airplanes are operating correctly, fulfill various services for passengers, and fly innovative airplanes thousands of feet in the air so people can safely travel across vast distances in a short amount of time. However, many disagreements can develop between the labor force and the managerial professionals of the aviation industry. To protect the workers from being victimized by abusive conditions, many workers of the airline industry belong to labor unions that can prevent employers from implementing detrimental policies and can address the desires of the workers. The relationship between the airline industry labor workers and managerial employers are facilitated by the Railway Labor Act, the many unions that represent airline workers, and the negotiation tactics that are implemented during contract mediation sessions.

American workers have been challenged by labor struggles since the inception of the country. However, the developments of the 19th century industrial revolution had a significant impact on the labor unions that would emerge in the following generations and continue to influence the labor relations today. The industrial revolution of the 19th century enabled the US to experience a dramatic eruption of scientific achievements that generated several new scientific discoveries and innovative technological inventions. The new inventions enabled companies to build infrastructure, form factories, require employees to work at night with the aid of light bulbs, and utilize complex machinery to mass produce several different products. As a result of the new technological innovations and the development of factories, companies required several laborers to build the infrastructures, operate the machinery and manufacture the products. However, the abusive mistreatment and extreme working requirements caused many laborers to experience very difficult working conditions and insufficiently low wages (Fossum, 2012). By the early 20th century, many different industries that spawned during the industrial revolution possessed an abundance of employees, and many workers began to organize and form unions to improve the wages and working conditions that laborers experienced.

The need for unions was further exasperated in the 1930s. The drastic economic problems of the Great Depression caused American workers to suffer from dire financial struggles, and many of the labor issues were addressed during the reformation period of the 1930s in which the government and the country was attempting to recover from the impact of the depression. During the 1930s recovery process, more labor unions developed than in any other decade, as unions were established to negotiate reasonable collective bargaining agreements for laborers in many different industries (Fossum, 2012). Thus, many of the labor unions that exist today were initially formed in the 1920s and 1930s as a response to the industrial revolution, the increasing workforce of laborers, and the need to recover from the Great Depression.

The procedures an organization must follow to become a union or to join a union is established by the US government and by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). To form or join a union, a representative of the respective workforce or company must contact the NLRB to demonstrate that the workers are interested in forming or joining a union. The NLRB then arranges an election to determine whether the particular workplace will unionize, schedules a day to conduct a vote, and assigns an appropriate location where workers can cast ballots. Only workers are allowed to vote in the election, and the reason employers and owners are prohibited from voting is because managerial professionals would have a significant influence on the outcome of the election and would have a biased interest in obstructing the formation of the union based on business agendas rather than workers rights (see Scott Paper Company case study). The NLRB usually schedules the election to occur about one or two months from when election process has been granted, which provides all workers with a sufficient amount of time to thoroughly review all of the essential information, analyze the situation and make a well-informed decision. The location of the election is typically at the employer’s property or on a neutral site, and the NLRB conducts and oversees the election (“Your Rights/Forming a Union,” n.d.). After all of the votes have been cast by the workers and counted by the NLRB, the union option must receive a majority of votes for the workforce to become unionized.

The aviation labor union was one of the many unions to form during the 1930s. Airplanes began to be manufactured in the early 20th century, which resulted in the Air Commerce Act providing the government with the ability to establish official airways implement aircraft certification features and determine air traffic regulations. As the reputation regarding the safety of airplanes improved, during the 1920s airplanes became more consistently utilized to fulfill postage, travelling and business endeavors. To fulfill the blossoming demand for airplane travelling, major commercial airline companies began to emerge around the 1920s and 30s, and some of the biggest companies today were established during this period, such as Pan American, United Airlines and American Airlines (Harris, n.d.). These major airline companies employed an abundance of workers to fulfill the many services that are required to operate a successful airline. Positions naturally included pilots, mechanical engineers, airplane staff, transaction professionals, and air traffic controllers. Thus, during the 1930s the airline industry had begun to flourish, and the many workers of the industry were impelled to also unionize for beneficial collective bargaining agreements.

The formation of aviation unions began in the 1930s as airline industry workers began to express complaints regarding low wages and detrimental working conditions. For instance, in 1931 the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) was established and immediately helped execute a workers strike to express grievances with Century Airlines, such as extremely low pay, inferior working environments, and excessive flying time requirements. The strike and the ensuing negotiations effectively helped the pilots ascertain their general working demands, and the success of the ALPA encouraged many other airline workers to unionize and generated the formation of several other aviation unions. For instance, the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) was established in 1934. Although the TWU originally was designed to negotiate collective bargaining agreements for subway workers, in 1945 the union began also representing airline employees, including maintenance workers, mechanical engineers, flight attendants and pilots (Fossum, 2012). Thus, in the 1940s the TWU became one of the most prominent and powerful union organizations to represent and advocate for the interests of airline industry workers. Additionally, in the succeeding decades many new aviation unions would form, including major organizations such as the United Transportation Union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, and the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks.

Although many unions have developed to represent aviation laborers, most of the organizations are branches of the massive super-union, AFL-CIO. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the largest and most influential of all labor unions in the early 20th century, and in 1955 the AFL merged with another prestigious union, the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). The merger of the unions and the establishment of the AFL-CIO created a powerful organization that was capable of gradually absorbing and representing many smaller unions (Fossum, 2012). Thus, the AFL-CIO is the parent organization that supports and provides resources for the vast majority of aviation unions, including the ALPA and the TWU.

The labor relations between the unionized airline workers and the airline management professionals were established by the Railway Labor Act. The Railway Labor Act (RLA) was established in 1926 to establish the negotiating process for railroad workers, and in 1936 the Act was amended to also include the aviation industry in the statute. As a result, the provisions in the Railway Labor Act apply to the airline industry, establish the labor relations between the unions and employers, and articulate the specific process by which airline unions and employers can negotiate the details of collective bargaining agreements. The Act elaborates on the general procedures that must be followed during a negotiation process in which a contract or collective bargaining agreement is being initiated or revised (Etters, n.d.). Representatives of the labor union or the employer must express proposals by filing written statements that express its demands pertaining to the new terms and conditions that the organization is seeking.

The RLA also establishes the dispute resolution process to manage situations in which contentious disagreements emerge between the airline workers and employers. According to the RLA, neither party can implement any changes to the current terms and conditions of the contracts until both sides have reached and signed an official agreement. This provision is important because it facilitates and mandates the negotiation process and prevents either workers or managers from forcefully altering the contracts without the consent of the other side. After the bargaining proposals of the unions and employers have been expressed in written statements, both sides must conduct a mediation meeting and engage in a conversation to most effectively reach an agreement. For most disputes, the National Mediation Board (NMB) manages the mediation process, and the Railway Labor Act establishes the general procedures that the NMB can follow to help resolve the issue. If both parties are unable to reach an agreement, the NMB has the ability to provide the opportunity for the parties to arbitrate the unresolved conflicts still being debated (Etters, n.d.). If either side refuses the arbitration offer, then a thirty-day break in the discussions occurs so the sides can regroup, adjust their negotiation strategies, and formulate a plan to most effectively negotiate the contract after the thirty-day break has concluded and discussions have resumed.

Many disputes require arbitration, and the process of arbitration is also established by the Railway Labor Act. During an arbitration procedure, an arbitration tribunal is established either by the NMB or by labor and management representatives. The tribunal consists of an equal number of members who vote on a resolution for the issue being debated. Both parties present their proposals to the tribunal, explain their arguments regarding why it is a reasonable proposal, and criticize flaws in the other side’s respective proposal. After both sides have been discussed, the tribunal conducts a vote, and if a certain proposal wins the majority of the votes, then that proposal becomes an official agreement that immediately becomes final and legally binding (Etters, n.d.). Additionally, if the tribunal vote ends in a tie, then an extra neutral tribunal member is selected, and the deciding vote of this extra member becomes official.

There are many factors that can cause disputes to emerge between workers and employers of the airline industry, including working conditions, working hours, workplace regulations, and safety requirements. However, the majority of issues being debated relate to wage disputes. Labor usually wants higher wages while management typically wants to pay lower wages. Wage disputes are especially exasperated during times of dramatic and abrupt changes in the condition of the national economy, as during prosperous economic periods labor generally argues for higher pay, and during recessions the industry often argues for lower pay. Labor has a significant advantage in the wage rate negotiating process, for airline worker strikes would devastate the operations of the airline, require the company to shut down, and cause customers to purchase the services of other competing airlines. Thus, the threat of a possible strike and the damage that can be caused by a strike has enabled the laborers to generally succeed in their collective bargain negotiations and to establish relatively superior contracts (Hirsch, 2007). For instance, airline workers tend to experience relatively high wages and impressive benefit packages compared to many other unionized industries and labor workers in the US.

Although airline professionals can thrive with prestigious careers and relatively high salaries, the workers also must fulfill many important responsibilities to fly or manage the planes. Because airline companies and aviation employers have abused workers in the past by providing unfairly low wages and detrimental working conditions, the aviation unions serve the important function of protecting the workers from abuse and maximizing the ability of the workers to obtain reasonable contracts. The relations between the laborers and employers in the aviation industry are determined by the many unions that represent airline workers, the processes established in the Railway Labor Act, and the negotiation strategies of the workers and managers during mediation sessions.

References

Etters, R. M. (n.d.). Airline labor relations. Railway Labor Act. Retrieved from http://railwaylaboract.com/airline.labor.relations.htm

Fossum, J. A. (2012). Labor relations: Development, structure, process (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Harris, A. (n.d.). The history of airline industry. USA Today. Retrieved from http://traveltips.usatoday.com/history-airline-industry-100074.html

Hirsch, B. (2007, July 15). Unions and wages in the US airline industry. International Air Transport Association. Retrieved from http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/Hirsch_Unions_Wages.pdf

Your Rights/Forming a Union. (n.d.). International Union of Operating Engineers. Retrieved from http://www.iuoe.org/JoinIUOE/YourRightsFormingaUnion/tabid/88/Default.aspx